Major, trace element and stable isotope geochemistry of synorogenic breccia bodies, Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica

Cambrian carbonates in the Heritage Range of the Ellsworth Mountains, West Antarctica host a series of
carbonate-rich breccia bodies that formed contemporaneously with the Permian Gondwanide orogen. The breccia
bodies had a three-stage genesis, with the older breccias containing Cambrian limestone (and marble) clasts supported
by calcite, whereas the younger breccias are nearly clast-free and composed entirely of matrix calcite. Breccia clasts,
calcite matrix and detrital matrix samples were analyzed using x-ray fluorescence (major and trace elements), x-ray
diffraction, and stable isotopes (C, O) and suggest that the breccias formed as part of a closed geochemical system, at
considerable depth, within the Cambrian limestone host as the Ellsworth Mountains deformed into a fold-and-thrust belt
along the margin of Gondwana